Eskobar feat. Lemon D - It's Yours / Return To 125th St. (True Playaz, 2001)
After writing about '125th Street' by Click 'n' Cycle the other day I couldn't resist returning to the theme with this 12" from Lemon D under his Eskobar alias, although he still 'features' as his regular moniker. Whereas Ed Solo & Dave Stone sampled The Last Poets, here Kevin King samples their contemporary Gil Scott-Heron on both sides so this post has to be a double header!
Eskobar was a name Lemon D had first used in 1996 for a few tracks on the short-lived R.O.A.R. Recordings. After five years he then revived it for a handful of releases, most likely due to his album deal with R&S - the credits say "Lemon D appears courtesy of R&S Records and Valve Recordings" (although two 12"s were put out by the Belgian label they went on a hiatus in 2001 and the album never arrived).
Gil Scott-Heron was born in Chicago but moved to The Bronx when he was 12. He has been called the "godfather of rap" and first appeared on the scene around the same time as The Last Poets, with whom he shared a similar style and lyrical themes. In fact according to The Last Poet's Abiodun Oyewole, Scott-Heron approached him after a performance at Lincoln University in 1969 and asked "Listen, can I start a group like you guys?". His first album came out the same year as The Last Poets debut LP and was titled Small Talk at 125th and Lenox. Both tracks on this 12" sample tracks from this album but are otherwise very different to each other.
'It's Yours' begins with a sample of the phrase which Scott-Heron is famous for: "The revolution will not be televised", taken from the album's introduction preceding his performance of the track (although the full band version on 1971's Pieces Of A Man is probably better known). Around this Lemon D creates a hard edged track with loud, cymbal heavy drums and a gritty bassline, topped by Far Eastern style instrumentation that wouldn't sound out of place on a Wu-Tang song. He also fits in T La Rock's shout of "It's Yours" and what sounds to me like the "ahhhhh" from Chic's 'Le Freak'. After a brief mid-track breakdown, Lemon D changes things up with a new bassline to keep things fresh.
My pick of the two tracks though is 'Return To 125th St', the title seemingly referencing both the Scott-Heron album it samples and the Click 'n' Cycle track. It's also a follow up to that tune in style as it's a jazzy roller featuring a chilled rhodes lick over two step drums . It samples Scott-Heron's 'Brother':
"There are a lot of comments about who's blacker than you are and who's blacker than she is and blacker than thou"
There isn't that much else to it really but it's another great tune to bump on a summer's day. I've put together a Spotify playlist of samples used on the True Playaz label from 1996 to 2001, including the tracks covered today. Both of these Eskobar numbers and most of the True Playaz catalogue are also available on Spotify. Gil Scott-Heron passed away on May 27th 2011, RIP.